COURSEULLES-SUR-MER, FRANCE — On a day when tensions between east and west are once again blowing across Eastern Europe, the beach where 14,000 Canadians came ashore under intense German fire 70 years ago was almost deserted Friday.

French and Canadian dignitaries gathered under a dazzling blue sky for a ceremony that was more a celebration of D-Day and Canada’s achievements during six years of war against Nazi Germany than a solemn remembrance of the more than 1,000 Canadians who died or were wounded.

“Freedom. Democracy. Justice. All the things, in fact, that our enemies despised and had extinguished from every part of the continent they had conquered,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told about 100 D-Day veterans and dozens of other nonagenarians, who crossed Juno Beach after the first wave established a beachhead, then pushed on to even-bloodier battles in Caen and the Falaise Gap or fought elsewhere in Europe, North Africa and Asia.

Given the current dispute over eastern Ukraine, it was a day of high political drama in Normandy as the Queen and U.S. President Barack Obama treated Russian President Vladimir Putin like a pariah because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

But the Russian did not want for companionship. French President François Hollande, who had invited him to the D-Day celebrations, wined and dined him in Paris Thursday; and Britain’s David Cameron and Germany’s Angela Merkel had private meetings Friday in Normandy.

These very different receptions underlined a split between North America and Europe about how to deal with Mr. Putin’s apparent desire to turn back the clock to a time when Russia was feared.

In a meeting arranged by Mr. Hollande and Ms. Merkel near Sword Beach, one of the two landing points for British troops, Mr. Putin also spoke briefly with Ukraine’s president-elect Petro Poroshenko.

In his speech, Mr. Hollande singled out Canada, Britain and the U.S. for special thanks. But he also mentioned the Soviet Union’s immense suffering and huge contribution to defeating Hitler’s armies on the eastern front.

Curiously, although the Red Army played no role on D-Day, Mr. Putin garnered far more applause than Mr. Harper when he walked toward the stage in Ouistreham, where the official multinational ceremony was held. So, for that matter, did Ms. Merkel and Mr. Obama. But no leaders were as warmly received as the Queen.

Mr. Harper does not often deliver emotional speeches, but the one he gave Friday seemed to come very much from his heart.

“As a Canadian, reflecting on this achievement I can only feel two emotions that are not usually reckoned together: fierce pride and the deepest humility,” he said.

“Who were these men? What kept them going? Why did they do what they did? They came from all walks of life, from all parts of our great country. They were young, some still in their teens. And, as their British hosts found, they were boisterous and enthusiastic.

“But, they were united in a common cause. They wanted to see Europe free.”

Mr. Harper has often emphasized Canada has a great tradition as a warrior nation and should not only be remembered as a nation of peacekeepers, although that has often received more attention in schools and from the media.

Returning to that theme, he said, “Then as now, Canadians understood why peacemakers are said to be blessed … So, they took up arms, these and a million other Canadians — men and women — who put on the uniform and beat their ploughshares into swords.”

The prime minister has made a point of recalling Canada’s military achievements by returning the Royal Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Navy to their original names and bringing back rank insignias used during both world wars. However, the Harper government has fallen 50% short of the NATO goal of spending 2% of the country’s gross domestic product on defence.

That lack of spending was glaringly obvious Friday, when the navy could not muster a single warship to join British, U.S. and French warships. It has been a long fall from D-Day, when Canada had the world’s fourth-largest navy.

However, 50 Canadian paratroopers took part in an airdrop with U.S. and British forces, as they all did 70 years ago.

“We have been greatly honoured to have had an opportunity to speak with some of our D-Day veterans,” said one of the Canadian jumpers, MCpl Stephen Fennelly of 1 Field Ambulance Edmonton, N.B., and Orleans, Ont.

“They came here by land and sea and air and have told us their stories. When they extended their hands and thanked me for my service it was one of the humbling things in my life.”

“As one of them told us, some of them didn’t exactly land where they wanted to,” said MCpl Fennelly, who like many of those who jumped had served in Afghanistan. “One guy told us he landed on a house, but he got up and got going.”

The Canadians dropped Thursday near to where the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion landed on June 6, 1944.

“Something keeps dragging me back,” said Edgar Bedard, who landed on D-Day with the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa and who was visiting for the 12th time since the war.

“It was just terrible when we reached shore. They were all shouting at us, ‘Get off the beach.’ ”

Pointing toward a house in the distance that was still standing, the spry 90-year-old added, “When we reached there, 11 German P0Ws were inside. One of them said, ‘Kanada ist kaput.’ But we weren’t. We were off immediately on a road inland toward Caen.”

Donald Fowler, who came ashore on the second day with the Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry Highlanders, had mixed feelings about returning to Juno Beach.

“The guys we left here were 17, 18, 19, like we used to be and they used to be my friends,” the 88-year-old said. “But it is important to be here to explain the true history.”